Z87 still a viable platform? Not particularly concerned with skylake and spending a ton to upgrade RAM as well. Can get a really good deal on a very high quality Z87... or is it worth spending more to get a lower "tier" Z97. Most likely placing my order tomorrow....
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Z87 or Z97...
- Thread starter Luke1978
- Start date
- Thread Starter
- #3
Z87 Mpower Max AC
Or anything Z97 in the 150$-$200 dollar price range. Say MSI Gaming 5 up to the Asus Maximus VII Hero (although ASUS recent issues with support kind of worry me, seen a lot besides just on here)
Will be paired with a 4690K, and I would like to get back into some serious benchmarking. Didn't think I was worried about it... But I miss my SS Phase days.
Or anything Z97 in the 150$-$200 dollar price range. Say MSI Gaming 5 up to the Asus Maximus VII Hero (although ASUS recent issues with support kind of worry me, seen a lot besides just on here)
Will be paired with a 4690K, and I would like to get back into some serious benchmarking. Didn't think I was worried about it... But I miss my SS Phase days.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2012
I'd just get a Z97 Extreme6. It has carried my 4790K into the 5.2GHz range.
That's on water cooling with winter night ambients (0°C air or so)
If you're looking for an OC centered board, the Z97 SOC Force or Z97 OC Formula are your best bets.
But, unless you're running sub-ambient, you don't need to step up to a board like that.
That's on water cooling with winter night ambients (0°C air or so)
If you're looking for an OC centered board, the Z97 SOC Force or Z97 OC Formula are your best bets.
But, unless you're running sub-ambient, you don't need to step up to a board like that.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2014
I got the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 and i'm very impressed with this board so far. Can't OC on it till tomorrow though....Cooler was on a different order 
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2014
If your spending 2 bills, get the z97 OC Formula
Arguably best deal on the z97 platform hands down
Arguably best deal on the z97 platform hands down
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2007
- Location
- Near Toronto Canada
Agreed.
Hard to believe but this post wasn't sponsored by ASRock ... again
But really it's hard to get better board in this price.
Also if you can find cheap ASRock Z87M OCF on some auction then it will be good option. Gigabyte Z87X OC Force is also good from these older boards and it's about the same board as Z97X-SOC Force but probably won't support next CPUs ( I still think it will be matter of BIOS update but probably locked by Intel ).
- Thread Starter
- #13
Newer CPU (Broadwell/Skylake) support isn't a concern atm. This will be a lasting upgrade.
Not going to lie, despite the advice here (which is all good btw, and appreciated) it wasn't compelling enough to not order the Z87 Mpower MAX AC for $109 brand spanky danky new, along with a 4690K (hopefully the board ships with the newer BIOS that supports the 4690K, if not I'll have to find a cheap CPU to flash it with)
I know the board is serious overkill, but for the price, and the quality I just couldn't pass it up. I didn't see any benefit to spending a hundred dollars more just for SATA M.2 (i.e the Z97 OC Formula) and a newer chipset with very minimal gains over Z87.
Not going to lie, despite the advice here (which is all good btw, and appreciated) it wasn't compelling enough to not order the Z87 Mpower MAX AC for $109 brand spanky danky new, along with a 4690K (hopefully the board ships with the newer BIOS that supports the 4690K, if not I'll have to find a cheap CPU to flash it with)
I know the board is serious overkill, but for the price, and the quality I just couldn't pass it up. I didn't see any benefit to spending a hundred dollars more just for SATA M.2 (i.e the Z97 OC Formula) and a newer chipset with very minimal gains over Z87.
- Thread Starter
- #15
Reason enough right there...
Haha, the BIOS that adds support for the 4790K/4690K was released about 8 months ago, should be ok, just like to be prepared, saves on disappointment.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2014
If only i had budget constraints, i would go for older chipset. Otherwise, between the two, you should straightaway get z97 or even other very recently released chipset.
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2014
- Location
- S. Flori-duh
Hard to believe but this post wasn't sponsored by ASRock ... again
But really it's hard to get better board in this price.
Also if you can find cheap ASRock Z87M OCF on some auction then it will be good option. Gigabyte Z87X OC Force is also good from these older boards and it's about the same board as Z97X-SOC Force but probably won't support next CPUs ( I still think it will be matter of BIOS update but probably locked by Intel ).
You mean about 99% of the regular users for Asrock anything
Here is top hoping that board isn't old stock...
- Thread Starter
- #19
Undefinedgamer my needs outweigh my ego of having the new chipset. Take more than m2 and SATA express to make it worthwhile.
And fwiw budget was last on the list of considerations in my purchase. However value was high...
Performance
Value
Aesthetics
Budget
In that order. I could have easily ordered the Maximus VII Formula, The Z97 Mpower Max or almost any other Z97 board (X99 wasn't in the budget), but to what end and gain in #1 and #2?
And fwiw budget was last on the list of considerations in my purchase. However value was high...
Performance
Value
Aesthetics
Budget
In that order. I could have easily ordered the Maximus VII Formula, The Z97 Mpower Max or almost any other Z97 board (X99 wasn't in the budget), but to what end and gain in #1 and #2?
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Actually I haven't seen any board which couldn't start with 4690/4790K. The only problems were with G3258 Pentiums or other chips ( i3 with reduced cache or something ) on boards like H81. 4690/4790K are almost the same as 4670/4770K while some other new chips require new microcode. Sometimes were not working some options regarding OC but could at least boot to flash new BIOS.
